VANCOUVER — As he hit another career high Thursday, J.T. Miller’s focus was firmly set on another goal — dragging the Vancouver Canucks into the playoffs.
The high-flying forward tallied five assists as the Canucks dismantled the struggling Arizona Coyotes 7-1 on Thursday.
The five-point night was a career high for Miller, who leads Vancouver in scoring with 91 points (29 goals, 62 assists) on the season.
“I try to feel like I’m never satisfied,” he said. “I’ve got an amazing opportunity since I’ve been here, I’ve got to play in every situation, which is something I’ve worked for my whole career.
“But that being said, it doesn’t really mean (much) to me if we don’t play in the playoffs. I really just want to play in the playoffs because when you score in the playoffs that’s when it means a lot.”
Thursday’s result extended Vancouver’s win streak to five straight games and preserved the team’s faint hopes of securing a playoff position. The Canucks (37-28-10) sit five points below the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars, who hold the two Western Conference wild-card spots.
Ten different Canucks players got on the scoresheet Thursday, with rookie Vasily Podkolzin netting two goals and an assist, Alex Chiasson scoring twice, and Sheldon Dries, Elias Pettersson and Conor Garland all contributing a goal apiece. Quinn Hughes notched three helpers.
Andrew Ladd replied for the Coyotes (22-47-5), who lost their fifth straight.
Despite the final score, Arizona head coach Andre Tourigny said he liked the way his group played in the third period.
“I think we showed more pride in the third period,” he said. “For me, that’s our team. That’s the way we have to fight. We talked about it before the game and we got better on that, so that’s a positive.”
It was a relatively quiet night in net for Thatcher Demko, who made 21 saves for the win.
Arizona’s Karel Vejmelka stopped 16 of 22 shots before being replaced by Harri Sateri to start the third period. Sateri made four saves in relief.
It was the third game in a row that Vejmelka gave up six goals.
“NHL for me is full of slumps,” Tourigny said of the netminder. “You need to be able to react to a slump. If you cannot get out of a slump in the NHL, you’re in trouble. You will be a streaky player. NHL is not about that. It’s about being good every day. It’s about consistency.
Vancouver came into the third with a dominant lead and continued to run up the score with Chiasson netting his second tally of the night midway through the period.
Miller dished a slick pass to the veteran forward and he blasted a one-timer past Sateri stick side at the 8:26 mark for his 12th goal of the year.
“I’ve been getting a really good opportunity here to showcase what I can do,” Chiasson said. “Obviously it feels like I’m being able to find my spots on the ice, playing with good players. Hopefully keep this thing going forward, one game at a time.”
Chiasson has been “a pro all year” for the Canucks, said head coach Bruce Boudreau, even through a stretch of three or four games where he was a healthy scratch.
“He never once complained, he just came to work,” Boudreau said. “To see things start to go well for him, you can only be really happy for the guy. And we need it. Guys are getting injured left, right and centre and these guys are stepping up. That’s part of the reason we’re still hanging in this thing.”
Podkolzin buried his second goal of the night with 26.6 seconds left in the middle frame, blasting a one-timer from the faceoff circle to give the Canucks a 6-1 lead.
Garland put away the home side’s fifth of the night 15:39 into the period, finding space between Vejmelka and his post with a wrist shot from the hash marks.
Just 14 seconds earlier, Podkolzin found the back of the net for Vancouver’s third power-play goal of the game after Kyle Capobianco was called for tripping.
Podkolzin pulled the puck across the top of the crease and sent a backhand past Vejmelka while falling to the ice for his 12th goal of the campaign.
Arizona got on the board midway through the second when Kessel sent a shot soaring toward the Vancouver net from the top of the faceoff circle. Demko made the stop but the puck landed at his pads and Ladd shovelled it in over the goal line to cut the deficit to 3-1.
Pettersson added to the Canucks’ cushion 4:29 into the middle frame after the Coyotes were called for too many men.
The Swedish star blasted a one-timer from inside the faceoff circle for his 27th goal of the season.
Vancouver lost a key piece early in the second period when Bo Horvat took a shot from Anton Stralman off the inside of his right ankle. He went directly to the locker room and did not return to the game.
Boudreau said he thinks the Canucks captain will be OK and he’s hoping to have him in the lineup on Monday when Vancouver hosts the Dallas Stars.
Horvat came into the matchup riding a five-game point streak where he amassed five goals and three assists.
The Canucks closed out the first with a 2-0 lead.
Arizona’s J.J. Moser was called for tripping, giving Vancouver its second man advantage of the night.
With just seconds left in the power play, Brad Hunt launched a rocket from the top of the slot and Dries tipped it in for his first goal in a Canucks jersey.
Vancouver went 3-for-4 on the power play Thursday and Arizona was 1-for-2.
Chiasson opened the scoring 10:19 into the game, deflected in a puck from Miller.
The marker extended his point streak to five games, with four goals and four assists across the stretch.
NOTES: The Coyotes will take on the Flames in Calgary on Saturday … Garland is on a five-game point streak with two goals and five assists … The Canucks swept the three-game season series between the two sides.
TORONTO – Singles star Leylah Fernandez and doubles specialist Gabriela Dabrowski will anchor Canada’s five-player lineup when the team tries to defend its Billie Jean King Cup title in mid-November.
The 26th-ranked Fernandez, the 2021 U.S. Open finalist from Laval, Que., is the lone Canadian in the top 100 of the WTA Tour’s singles rankings.
Dabrowski, from Ottawa, is ranked fourth on the doubles list. The 2023 U.S. Open women’s doubles champion won mixed doubles bronze with Felix Auger-Aliassime at the recent Paris Olympics.
Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, Ont., returns after a breakout performance last year, capped by her singles win in Canada’s 2-0 victory over Italy in the final. Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino is also back and Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion from Mississauga, Ont., returns to the squad for the first time since 2022.
“Winning the Billie Jean King Cup in 2023 was a dream come true for us, and not only that, but I feel like we made a statement to the world about the strength of this nation when it comes to tennis,” Canada captain Heidi El Tabakh said Monday in a release. “Once again, we have a very strong team this year with Bianca joining Leylah, Gaby, Rebecca and Marina, making it an extremely powerful team that is more than capable of going all the way.
“At the end of the day, our goal is to make Canada proud, and we’ll do our best to bring the same level of effort and excitement that we had in last year’s finals.”
Fernandez, who beat Jasmine Paolini to clinch Canada’s first-ever title at the competition, is ranked No. 42 in doubles.
Canada, which received an automatic berth as defending champion, will play the winner of the first-round tie between Great Britain and Germany on Nov. 17 at Malaga’s Martin Carpena Arena.
Australia, Italy and wild-card entry Czechia also received first-round byes. The tournament, which continues through Nov. 20, also includes host Spain, Slovakia, the United States, Poland, Japan and Romania.
Stakusic is up 27 spots to No. 128 in the latest world singles rankings. Marino is at No. 134 and Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, is ranked 167th.
Canada will look to become the first team since Czechia in 2016 to successfully defend its Billie Jean King Cup title.
Malaga will also host the Nov. 19-24 Davis Cup Final 8. The Canadian men qualified over the weekend with a 2-1 victory over Great Britain in Manchester.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
PITTSBURGH – Sidney Crosby plans to remain a Pittsburgh Penguin for at least three more years.
The Penguins announced on Monday that they re-signed the 37-year-old from Cole Harbour, N.S., to a two-year contract extension that has an average annual value of US$8.7 million. The deal runs through the 2026-27 season.
Crosby was eligible to sign an extension on July 1 with him entering the final season of a 12-year, $104.4-million deal that carries an $8.7-million salary cap hit.
At the NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas last Monday, he said things were positive and he was optimistic about a deal getting done.
The three-time Stanley Cup champion is coming off a 42-goal, 94-point campaign that saw him finish tied for 12th in the league scoring race.
Crosby has spent all 19 of his NHL seasons in Pittsburgh, amassing 592 goals and 1,004 assists in 1,272 career games.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Tadej Pogacar was so dominant on Sunday, Canada’s Michael Woods called it a race for second.
Pogacar, a three-time Tour de France champion from Slovenia, pedalled to a resounding victory at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal.
The UAE Team Emirates leader crossed the finish line 24 seconds ahead of Spain’s Pello Bilbao of Bahrain — Victorious to win the demanding 209.1-kilometre race on a sunny, 28 C day in Montreal. France’s Julian Alaphilippe of Soudal Quick-Step was third.
“He’s the greatest rider of all time, he’s a formidable opponent,” said Woods, who finished 45 seconds behind the leader in eighth. “If you’re not at your very, very best, then you can forget racing with him, and today was kind of representative of that.
“He’s at such a different level that if you follow him, it can be lights out.”
Pogacar slowed down before the last turn to celebrate with the crowd, high-five fans on Avenue du Parc and cruise past the finish line with his arms in the air after more than five hours on the bike.
The 25-year-old joined Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet as the only multi-time winners in Montreal after claiming the race in 2022. He also redeemed a seventh-place finish at the Quebec City Grand Prix on Friday.
“I was disappointed, because I had such good legs that I didn’t do better than seventh,” Pogacar said. “To bounce back after seventh to victory here, it’s just an incredible feeling.”
It’s Pogacar’s latest win in a dominant year that includes victories at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.
Ottawa’s Woods (Israel Premier-Tech) tied a career-best in front of the home crowd in Montreal, but hoped for more after claiming a stage at the Spanish Vuelta two weeks ago.
“I wanted a better result,” the 37-year-old rider said. “My goal was a podium, but at the same time I’m happy with the performance. In bike racing, you can’t always get the result you want and I felt like I raced really well, I animated the race, I felt like I was up there.”
Pogacar completed the 17 climbs up and down Mount Royal near downtown in five hours 28 minutes 15 seconds.
He made his move with 23.3 kilometres to go, leaving the peloton in his dust as he pedalled into the lead — one he never relinquished.
Bilbao, Alaphilippe, Alex Aranburu (Movistar Team) and Bart Lemmen (Visma–Lease) chased in a group behind him, with Bilbao ultimately separating himself from the pack. But he never came close to catching Pogacar, who built a 35-second lead with one lap left to go.
“It was still a really hard race today, but the team was on point,” Pogacar said. “We did really how we planned, and the race situation was good for us. We make it hard in the last final laps, and they set me up for a (takeover) two laps to go, and it was all perfect.”
Ottawa’s Derek Gee, who placed ninth in this year’s Tour de France, finished 48th in Montreal, and called it a “hard day” in the heat.
“I think everyone knows when you see Tadej on the start line that it’s just going to be full gas,” Gee said.
Israel Premier-Tech teammate Hugo Houle of Sainte-Perpétue, Que., was 51st.
Houle said he heard Pogacar inform his teammates on the radio that he was ready to attack with two laps left in the race.
“I said then, well, clearly it’s over for me,” Houle said. “You see, cycling isn’t that complicated.”
Australia’s Michael Matthews won the Quebec City GP for a record third time on Friday, but did not finish in Montreal. The two races are the only North American events on the UCI World Tour.
Michael Leonard of Oakville, Ont., and Gil Gelders and Dries De Bondt of Belgium broke away from the peloton during the second lap. Leonard led the majority of the race before losing pace with 45 kilometres to go.
Only 89 of 169 riders from 24 teams — including the Canadian national team — completed the gruelling race that features 4,573 metres in total altitude.
Next up, the riders will head to the world championships in Zurich, Switzerland from Sept. 21 to 29.
Pogacar will try to join Eddy Merckx (1974) and Stephen Roche (1987) as the only men to win three major titles in a season — known as the Triple Crown.
“Today gave me a lot of confidence, motivation,” Pogacar said. “I think we are ready for world championships.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
